Late post, but I just got back from family vacation in the hills of NC. Caught these fish on Monday at Belkie Bear. Me and a buddy of mine went out kingfishing without any knowledge of what we were doing. We just applied information from these forums as well as talk from local folks. We headed out of MI about 6am and looked for those dark clouds of bait about a 100 yards from the breakers. Problem was it was overcast and there wasn’t enough light to see the “clouds”. We rode for about 20mins and when we saw baitfish popping the surface. Using our best shrimping techniques for throwing the net, we cast and netted about 120 menhaden. Bait in the live well, we headed out. We baited up using wire rigs I got off E-bay a few years ago. Slow trolled 2mph over the rocks and these were the result.
Headed back by noon. We were stoked! One question though. Is the fish second from the bottom a Spanish? It looks a little different from the others. Spots are more yellow. It weighed 8.9lbs. Thanks for all the help. Can’t wait to try again.
The lateral line is the dead give-away on the “spanish” versus “king” mackerel. The lateral line on kings has a distinct drop just behind the pectoral fin. On spanish there is no distinct drop. Never use the spots for ID, they’ll get you into trouble with junoir kings looking like spanish macs.
I’ve read about the lateral line between the two before that’s why I am questioning this fish. Here is the same photo zoomed in. The lateral line on the top and bottom fish has the definite “drop” as stated but the one in the middle is questionable. I just can’t tell. Thanks for the input. One thing about saltwater fishing is that there is always something new to learn.
up here in murrells inlet we sometimes catch kings up to 30 lbs. that still have spots. the larger the fish the more they fade after the fish expires/ what you have is a kingfish. been fishing here 30 plus years and have never seen a cerro caught or brought back to the dock.
green grass and high tides forever
jhp----- Murrells Inlet
if you lift the top fin of the fish, the fin of a king mackeral is the brownish grayish color of the top of their head and the fin of a spanish mackeral is black. Sure way to tell every time
17" War Eagle 25 Mercury
17" Boston Whaler Montauk 90 yamaha
plus the SC state record for Spanish mackeral is 11.0 lbs. If that one was 9lbs, I sorta doubt you were near a state record spanish. they are all kings. the smaller ones tend to have more spots and less of that dark lateral line with the well known “drop” in the lateral line. as they develop, that line gets more distinct…
the only way to tell the difference(fool proof) according to dnr is by counting the spines on the dorsal fin…but those are snakes for shure…and i will bet that the state record spanish was a king too an 11lb spanish is a pig to say the least
Half Mine II/ TEAM GEICO
2660 Sailfish
150 Yamahas
yea but the spanish that come through this time of the year are giants, especially where yall are fishin. Even in the shipping channel down here in charleston i’ve seen a handful in the ten pound range and heard stories of even more. a buddy of mine caught a 7lber on fly last year inside the harbor about this time. Really nice work i’m gonna have to come stay with the family in Pawley’s soon while those juvies are hot on the bait balls
